High speed stitcher



June 26, 1962 E. w. WORTHINGTON ET AL 3,

HIGH SPEED STITCHER 5 SheetsSheet 1 Filed Feb. 24, 1960 INVENTORS BY M 1y, W, a"?

ATTORN Y5 June 26, 1962 E. w. WORTHINGTON ET AL ,0

HIGH SPEED STITCHER 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Feb. 24, 1960 INVENTOS M;M

ATTOR Ys June 26, 1962 E. w. WORTHINGTON ET AL 3,040,324

HIGH SPEED STITCHER Filed Feb. 24, 1960 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 FIG. 3

FIG. 4

F" mm INVENTORS \f: I A A EMORYA v v ga ugq s ou I I 74! I W ATTORN Y5 June 26, 1962 E. w. WORTHINGTON ETAL 3,040,324

HIGH SPEED STITCHER 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed Feb. 24, 1960 INVENTORS EMORY w. w HINGTON AIjERT GEL BY W, M 711/0. M 111% ATTOR E. w. WORTHlNGTON EIA'I. 3,040,324

HIGH SPEED STITCHER 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 lzzlg ATTORNZ S INVENTORS EMORY w. WORTHINGTON AL ERT VOGEL BY 7 1K l B I June 26, 1962 Filed Feb. 24, 1960 States 3,646,324 HIGH SPEED STITCEER Unite .Emory W. Worthington, Ridgewood, and Albert Vogel,

This invention relates to a high speed stitcher and more particularly to a stapling mechanism for rapidly and accurately stapling together sections of printed matter.

In the stapling together of printed matter, particularly Sunday magazine sections of newspapers which may comprise as many as 96 pages, it becomes particularly important that the staples holding the separate pages together be accurately positioned on the fold lines of the pages in order that the edges of the different pages will be flush with one another when folded. Further it is important that when the staple is applied to the paper that it be forced through the pages to accurately engage a clincher block carried by a folding or other cylinder in order that the staple legs may be bent over to a predetermined configuration.

Existing high speed stitchers have plunger means mounted on rotating cylinders for engaging a wire at a wire cutting station and carrying the wire past forming horns in order to form the cut wire into substantially a U-shaped staple. Driver means are provided for forcing the staple through layers of paper carried by a second rotating cylinder. adjacent the first-mentioned cylinder. The driver forces the legs of the staple into engagement with a clincher block carried by the second cylinder where the legs are bent over to lock the layers together. If the alignment of the plunger and driver vary with respect to each other during the driving cycle, there is a possibility that the legs of the staple will not engage the clincher block properly so causing a malformed staple or even a broken staple. A series of broken staples often necessitates shutdown of the press printing the section, and in the case of supplements printed by the rotogravure process can be extremely serious since the ink on the inking rolls has to be maintained at a consistent predetermined temperature in order that it may dry properly on the paper. Stoppage of the press necessarily effects the temperature of the ink on the various ink rolls.

The above described existing stitching apparatus is subject to backlash between the various drive means driving the plunger and driver and no positive guide means are provided for insuring that the plunger and driver will be positively in alignment during the driving cycle. While the existing apparatus may be initially set up so that the plunger and driver are properly aligned, the various parts necessarily wear relatively fast since they are operating on the order of 10,000 -12,50(l cycles per. hour when a cutting cylinder rotates in the range of 20,000-25,00 revolutions per hour. Wear of the parts contributes to misalignment of the driver and plunger during the driving cycle which in turn contributes to premature shutdown of the press unit in order to' realign the parts.

We propose to overcome existing difiiculties of stapling because the, staple may be improperly formed or improperly positioned by a misalignment of the plunger and driver during the driving cycle by providing positive guide means whereby the plunger and driver are guided with respect to each other during the entire operating cycle of the parts and by providing a stitcher construction which will have a minimum of working connections in the driving means for the plunger and driver in order to minimize backlash between the various parts. Broadly our stitcher atent preloaded anti-friction comprises a. cutting cylinder having therein a plunger and driver movable outwards of the cylinder and both being pivotally mounted on separate arms carried by two rotatable rock shafts extending parallel to the axis of the cutting cylinder. A portion of the driver comprises a guide or bushing surrounding the plunger and through which the plunger may move. The guide itself preferably is a bearing while the rock shafts preferably are rotated by cam followers mounted thereon which run in cam tracks contained on the frame of the press unit.

Our stitcher comprises in addition a wire cutting station wherein wire from a reel is cut into sections and engaged by the plunger. From the wire cutting station the plunger carries the cut wire sections past forming horns which forms the wire sections into substantially U- shaped staples.

Referring to the drawings in which a preferred embodiment of our invention is shown,

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a cutting cylinder shown abutting a folding cylinder;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged portion of FIG. 1 illustrating details of the wire cutting station;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of FIG. 2 taken along lines 3-3-;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of FIG. 2 taken along lines 4-4;

FIG. 5 is a view similar to FIG. 2. illustrating the parts in an instant of time after that shown in FIG. 2

FIG. 6 is an enlarged view of a portion of FIG. 5 taken along lines 6-6;

FIG. 7 is an enlarged view of a portion of FIG. 1 illustrating the sequence of movement of the driver and the plunger;

FIG. 8 is a sectional view of FIG. 7 taken along lines 8-8; and,

FIG. 9 is a sectional view of FIG. 7 taken along lines 99.

Referring to the drawings in greater detail and in particular to FIG. 1, 1 denotes generally a cutting cylinder having therein a cutting knife 2 for severing sheets of paper P as they pass over a folding cylinder 3. The cutting cylinder 1 is carried by shaft 5 which is connected to and rotated by the press drive means. Discs (not shown) are mounted on the frame of the stitcher at each end of the cutting cylinder and have therein a cam track 6 as shown in FIG. 1. Cam track 6 in turn has running therein a cam follower 8 which is connected to arm 9 which in turn is joined to rock shaft 10 which is carried by the cutting cylinder. The rock shaft 10 has a number of arms 11 spaced along its longitudinal axis, only one of which is shown in the drawings for clearness, which are journaled at one end of a plurality of plunger shafts 12 which are distributed longitudinally over the cutting cylinder. While FIG. 1 only illustrates one plunger, it is to be understood that there is .a second plunger diametrically opposite on the cutting cylinder along with its associated rock shaft 10', cam follower 8' and cam track mounted in a disc at the opposite end of the cutting cylinder than the first-mentioned disc.

Plunger shaft 12 comprises a part of the stitching mechanism which is denoted generally by 13 and which in turn comprises a plunger 14- and a driver 15. Plunger 14 has mounted thereon two plunger lips 16 as shown in FIG. 6 which are connected with plunger shaft 12.

Referring to FIG. 2, it is seen that the driver 15 comprises a wire rest portion 16 and a guide portion 17 which serves as an outer race for a preloaded antifriction bearing denoted generally by 18. The guide portion 17 is journaled to an arm 19' connected to a rock shaft 20. Rock shaft 20 which serves as the driver actuation means 1s driven by a cam follower running in a cam track (both not shown) similar to cam track 6. Diametrically opposite the driver is a second driver which for clearness has not been illustrated in the drawings with the exception of FIG. 1 where the end of rock shaft 20" is shown which drives the oppositely positioned driver. Shaft 29 in turn is connected to cam follower 21 which runs along with cam follower 8 in cam track 6. As the shaft rotates, it will cause the rock arms to oscillate so causing the plunger and driver to move with respect to each other.

The anti-friction bearing 18 insures that the movement of the plunger and driver will at all times be coaxial. Any backlash between these two parts is further eliminated by preloading bearing 18.

The folding cylinder 3 has therein a bridge portion 30 which is circumferentially adjustable by means of screws 31 and 32 so that a clincher block 33 carried on the bridge may be adjusted with respect to the cutting cylinder to insure proper contact with the driver contained in the cutting cylinder. The clincher block is made of a hardened metal and has therein a dished portion 34 which receives legs L of .a staple Sto bend them over to a configuration, as shown in FIG. 9, to securely lock several layers of paper together.

Because of our novel structure for guiding the plunger and the driver during the complete driving cycle, the staple S will properly contact the clincher block 33 to insure a proper formed staple not withstanding wear of the plunger and driver actuation means. Further backlash due to the various moving parts is minimized since the only parts which move relative to each other are the plunger and driver. By utilizing a preloaded hearing such as that shown in the drawings this backlash between the parts is minimized so that they will be continually in proper alignment.

The staple S for each plunger-driver combination and its diametrically opposite combination are initially formed in a forming section denoted generally by 40 which comprises a forming horn 41 and a wire cutting portion denoted generally by 42. The forming section 40 receives a strand of wire W from a reel (not shown) which is fed to the forming section so that it passes through a guide tube 40' and turns to pass parallel to the axis of the cutting cylinder. As the cylinder 1 rotates, a roller 43 carried on one of the plunger lips 16, as shown in FIG. 6, contacts arm 44- which is'mounted on a shaft 45 all as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. Shaft 45 in turn has mounted thereon a cutter arm 46 which has a cutting portion 47 which will sever the wire W. The arm 44 has a portion 48 which contacts an adjustable stop 49 by which movement of the cutting portion 47 away from the wire W is regulated. A spring 50 urges a plug 51 in contact with portion 48 so that the arm 44 is urged in the counterclockwise direction, as shown in FIG. 2, to return the cutter arm 46 to the position shown in FIG. 2 before the wire is severed.

The wire W after it has been severed from the main strand of wire is kept from falling by means of spring arm 53 which is mounted to pivot about a shaft 54. A spring 55 urges the arm 53 to rotate clockwise about shaft 54 so that the Wire is kept from dropping after it has been severed.

As the cutting cylinder 1 is rotated, the rock arms are so actuated by the cam followers that the plunger is in the extended position as shown in FIG. 2 when the wire is severed while the driver is in the retarded position. As the cutting cylinder rotates, the wire engaging portion 60 contained on the plunger lips 16 will grab the wire W to pull it along the horn and cause the arm 53 to rotate against the force of spring 55. During this sequence, plunger 14 will begin to retract.

The forming horn comprises horn lips 61 as shown in FIG. 8 separated by a horn body portion 62 which varies progressively in shape so that as the plunger and wire reach the end of the horn and horn extension 63, the wire will be formed into a staple S having a substantially U-shaped configuration wherein the ends of the legs 4 L are bent slightly inwards as shown in FIG. 8 so that as the staple contacts the layers of paper on the folding cylinder, a sharp edge of the staple will cut into the paper. As the cutting cylinder rotates to bring the plunger from a point adjacent Where the wire W was cut,

the plunger will continue to move inwardly so that when it is opposite the clincher block, as shown in FIG. 7, it will be substantially flush with the outer portion of the cutting cylinder. At the same time the driver will be moved outwards of the cutting cylinder by reason of the cam track guiding the rock shaft 10 so that the plunger will also be substantially flush with the outer periphery of the cutting cylinder when the plunger is opposite the clincher block. This movement of the driver outwardly of the cutting cylinder will force the legs of the staple completely through the layers of paper so that the legs L of the staple will engage the dished portion 34 of the clincher block to be bent over to the configuration shown in FIG. 9.

The particular staple mechanism We have disclosed is particularly adaptable for use in a three-two type folding mechanism in which the cutting cylinder rotates twice for each three complete revolutions of the folding cylinder. The mechanism takes a minimum of space and embodies a minimum of moving parts, particularly parts which may be subjected to backlash which could effect precise alignments and actuation of the plunger and driver.

While we have only shown one stitcher mechanism, it is to be understood that there are a plurality of mechanisms placed along the longitudinal axis of the cutting cylinder and that cutouts are made in the folding blade attached to the folding cylinder to accommodate the stapled portions of the paper making a newspaper section.

It will be understood that the invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the scope or essential attributes thereof, and it is desired that the present embodiment be considered as illustrative and not restrictive except as set forth in the following claims.

We claim:

1. A high speed stitcher comprising a rotatable cylinder, a reciprocally movable and pivotable plunger carried in said cylinder for forming a staple, plunger drive means for moving said plunger inwardly and outwardly of said cylinder, a reciprocally movable and pivotable driver carried in said cylinder for driving a staple, and driver actuation means pivotally connected to said driver for moving said driver inwardly and outwardly of said cylinder; said plunger and driver being mounted concentrically with each other for coaxial movement and for common rotation about the connection of said driver actuation means and said driver.

2. A high speed stitcher according to claim 1 wherein said driver has a bushing portion surrounding said plunger and through which said plunger may slide.

3. A high speed stitcher according to claim 2 having in addition preloaded anti-friction bearing means in said bushing separating the said walls of said bushing and said plunger.

4. A high speed stitcher for a press unit having a first rotatable cylinder and a second rotatable cylinder, comprising a staple clincher block carried by said first rotatable cylinder, a reciprocally movable and pivotable plunger carried by said second rotatable cylinder for forming a staple, plunger drive means for moving said plunger inwardly and outwardly of said second rotatable cylinder, a reciprocally movable and pivotable driver for forcing a staple into engagement with said clincher block, and driver actuation means pivotally connected to said driver for moving said driver inwardly and outwardly of said second rotatable cylinder; said driver and said plunger being mounted concentric with respect to each other for coaxial movement and both being mounted for rotation about the connection of said driver actuation means and said driver.

5. A high speed stitcher according to claim 4 wherein 6 said driver has a preloaded anti-friction bearing through References Cited in the file of this patent v 6. A high speed stitcher according to claim 4 wherein n said plunger drive means comprises a plunger cam operated 510,528 fi 1893 rock shaft and said driver actuation means comprises a 5 i ig driver cam operated rock shaft. 

